MEDIA DEBATE: Defining trends for digital in 2013

INTERACTION GURU
Ben Poole
Head of interaction, Asia-Pacific
MEC

Next year, US$12 billion will be spent on internet display advertising in Asia-Pacific. This industry now has significant scale, and yet the discipline with which display ads are measured is fundamentally flawed. Three key issues must be addressed.

The first is viewability. A recent study by Comscore Asia revealed that four in 10 ads do not get exposed to the viewer. This means that $4.8 billion of ad investment goes completely unnoticed.

The second issue is verification. Effective Measure estimates that up to 55 per cent of all delivered ads are ‘off target’, meaning they do not reach their intended target audience. That equates to $6.6 billion in investment that is effectively wasted.

Thirdly comes value. After 15 years of industry evolution, we are still fixated with click-through as the core measure of online ad investments. The current average online ad response rate is 0.10 per cent. So marketers are effectively dismissing the value of 99.9 per cent of their investments, in order to focus on the (falling year by year) 0.10 per cent return. The majority of television, print and out-of-home ad investors do not hold themselves to such a metric. Why is digital the special case?

Thankfully, there are tools that can address all these issues. Ad viewability and ‘on target’ reach can become the standard way in which advertisers trade their investments. Quality metrics, ad engagement rates and brand uplift scores can replace the click-through as the main indicator of successful online advertising. In the coming year, I hope to see our industry boldly evolve the discipline of online ad measurement in this way.

DIGITAL PLANNER
Ernest Kim
Planning director
XM APAC

Firstly, I believe 2013 will be defined by pragmatism. After years of viewing digital as an open field for exploration, CEOs’ growing calls for accountability will lead marketers to seek solutions that drive meaningful and measurable business impact.

Among the highest profile casualties of this more sober approach to digital media will be the mobile display banner. Mobile banner holdouts will have the rug pulled out from under their wobbly feet by marketers who demand results that actually do something for their businesses.

In place of ineffectual mobile banners will rise innovative platforms like Kiip (http://kiip.me), a self-described mobile rewards network that connects marketers and advertisers through what the company calls “moments of achievement.” I won’t go into all the details, but suffice it to say that Kiip delivers memorable and substantive marketing interactions on mobile devices, and does so in a way that delivers value to users, advertisers and the app developers who tap Kiip to monetise their work.

Finally, I should be clear that, when I say 2013 will be a year of pragmatism, I don’t mean that it will be a year bereft of innovation or creativity. In fact, I believe that marketers’ focus on campaigns that deliver real business value will lead to the best, most innovative work we’ve seen since the mainstreaming of digital media.

SOCIAL DIRECTOR
Thomas Crampton
APAC director of social media
Ogilvy & Mather

2013 will mark the end of the era of the social media generalist. Four years ago, social media specialists were treated like emergency room doctors: “Make my campaign viral.” They then evolved into  general practitioners: “Develop my social strategy.” Now, those wishing to advance their careers need to stake a clear claim to deep specialities. “What are the measurement benchmarks for B-to-B campaigns in India?”

For that reason, social media will break into a series of specialisations, including: community and crisis management, a deep specialisation combining community knowledge with basic media buying, strong content creation and understanding of communications strategy; media buying for social media—an expertise in optimising always-on media for social envirionments, and spotting trends and opportunities to amplify with paid media; social creativity; mobile strategy for social, focusing on how to smoothly integrate social and mobile into ongoing campaigns; measurement and effectiveness; specialised products and skills, such as social CRM, social care and social research; and specialised sectors like business-to-business, travel and luxury.